May 27, 2008

I simply can't help it, but I always think about churches like the "advertising agency/PR managers/communications' strategists/sales force" for God (if s/he exists and if s/he would need of such services, but that is another story). You may like or not this point of view but they are in fact talking to a massive audience in the name of God.

As it happens with any other 'product', you have good agencies and bad ones. In a world so full of different beliefs, you can tell that some churches work more than others on their communications' skills.

But there is much more out there; is a big world and the big guy has his followers everywhere. The picture at the top is from Singapore and while it may not be the greatest ad, I have to admit it is cute.

The one that really caught my eye this time though, is originally from the UK. It is one of those cases where the final execution is extremely poor, but the idea has that playful tweak that makes you look twice.Check it out (and click to enlarge if you need to):

You can say it appeals to both the believer and the atheist, but what I find interesting is how they know that the first time you would read "nowhere" and not the other way around...

This for the creative ones. But if you want to see more real church signs including some of the bad -oh, so bad!- real signs, I recommend you pay a visit to Says-it.com that is where I find these ones. They have a neat collection of real signs that people have seen here and there (most include the exact location and some are really hilarious). They also have a way for you to generate your own fake church sign if you have in mind a better call that you haven't seen yet materialized.

Last but not least, if you liked this last sign that makes you read again, here is another one, much better executed; this one is a campaign done by a real advertising agency for a product that is more on the 'sinner' side of the world...